U.G.L.Y (5 page)

The
attacker
must
have
torn
open
her
neck,
blood
splattered
the
lens
of
the
camera
in
a
steady
stream
then,
within
moments
she
stopped
screaming,
then
stopped
moving, her feet twitching as the attacker continued to devour her body.
In
the
distance
through the TV we could hear
muffled
screams.
I
n
the
bar,
we all
stared
blankly
at
the
TV,
stunned
by
what
we
had
seen.
The
TV
went
silent
then
static
and
finally
to
a
test
pattern.

     I j
umped
out
of
my
seat and
ran
to
my
car.
As quickly as the car would go I drove west,
up
the
canyon and further into the mountains.
About
five
miles
up
the
road
there
was
a
turnout
that
overlooked
Los
Angeles
from
eight
thousand
feet.
I
f
the
weather
was
clear
you
could
see
all
the
way
to
Catalina
Island
from there. It was a popular place for couples to go for “inspiration”
.

I
was interested in the view.
I
wanted
to
see
how
big
this
thing
really
was.
As
I
sped
up
the
highway,
through
the
winding
mountains
I
couldn't
help
but
feel some excitement. I
t
was
just
like
a
zombie
movie, and my mind raced as I drove.
but
the
feeling
disappeared
very
quickly
as
I
crested
the
ridge
and
saw
billowing
black
smoke
rising
from
the
Los
Angeles
basin.

    
As
the
night
wore
on,
more
and
more
people
arrived
at
the
overlook
point. Once
the
sun
finally
set
we
could
all
see
devastating
fires
that
were
by
now
engulfing
the
whole
basin.
It
was
similar
to
watching
a
large
wild
fire,
which
were
common
in
the
mountains.
Many
of
the
same
people I would see daily
from
the
local
communities,
were
standing
right
along
side
me in the dark, looking on as if we were
keeping
a
vigil
over
an
approaching
fire.
This,
of
course,
was
not
a
wild
fire,
and
from
my vantage point
,
knowing
what
was
happening
below,
I
was
certain
I
was
overlooking
H
ell
itself.
I wondered
how
long
it would
take
for
it
to
reach
us
.

     The death toll from this event was staggering. What we had seen on the TV was just a small sample of the chaos that was happening all over the city. In one suburban community a group of infected ran into a middle school, trapping students in a cafeteria. The children were frozen with fear. Only two escaped as a group of ten people that had been infected tore the rest to pieces. Tearing flesh from their throats and pulling their bodies apart.

     Entire communities were destroyed by the infected. I can remember seeing the aftermath of what had happened in a number of homeless shelters in the downtown
Los Angeles
area. Hundreds of people were dismembered by what were best described as swarms of infected. Eventually they destroyed themselves when there were no more victims to attack. There was so much blood afterword that it flowed down sidewalks like a river.

    
Days
passed,
and
the
people
of
my
small
town
had
taken
up
a
defensive
position to the disaster
.
The
town
was
in
a
small
valley
with
two
ways
in
and
the
community
leaders
had
recruited
the
towns residents'
to
take
up
arms
and
defend
their
homes until
help,
if
any,
could
arrive.

After the first
24
hours,
phone
lines
and
cable
lines
were
cut
off.
Satellite
TV
and
amateur
radio
were
still
working
throughout the event,
and
TV
monitors
and
radio
base
stations
were
set
up
in
community
areas
through
out
town.
Emergency
supplies
were
rationed
to
those
that
were
not
stocked
up
before
the
roads
into town were blocked
.
At
first
any
approaching
vehicles
were
stopped
and
ID's
were
checked,
but even locals returning
were
quarantined
into
a
camp
area outside of town just to be safe.
After
several
days
it
became
apparent
that
what
had
happened
was
not
related
to
an
illness
or
a
contagion
that
could
be
passed
from
person
to
person
and it seemed was not spreading. Soon paranoia began to fade so
the
guard
was
lightened
up.

    
Over
the
following
weeks
information
slowly leaked out
about
what
had
happened.
Most
of
the
violence
was
isolated
to
the
greater
Los
Angeles
area.
It
was
over
in
days,
only
a
ffecting
those
within
certain
areas.
It
a
ffected
people
that
had
been
living in specific geographical areas of the
county
of
Los Angeles
that were being supplied by the contaminated water supply. T
hese
same
people simply
stopped
coming
out
of
their
homes one morning.
Then s
omething
had
happened,
something
had
triggered
this
spontaneous
explosion
of
rage
and
murder.

5
.

-
Drugs
–

     As the contamination spread, discussion on solutions to calm people down was wide spread. Even though it wasn't immediately known it was a drug that had initiated the chaos, there was some suspicion that this may be a side effect of a number commercial anxiety drugs that were on the market. Ironically some talk led towards countering the effects by infusing another drug into the same water supply which I thought would absolutely make things worse.

      In the 10 years leading up to the first wave,
it
was
becoming
more
and
more
accepted
for
many people
to
be
regularly
prescribed
drugs
designed
to
sooth
and
calm.
Life
was
stressful,
terribly
so
for
many
middle
class
families
.
Long
commutes,
job
pressures,
family
pressures,
along
with
politically
fueled
uncertainty.

Over
time
people
began
to
lose composure
more
regularly,
and I
was
no
exception
.
I
fell
to
the
pressure of trying to succeed
and
became
part
of
the
“
better living
through
pharmaceuticals
”
generation.
And it was devastating.